X
THE LADY MARY CHANGES BADGES
Five weeks had expired since the _coup d'etat_ at Stoney Stratford andRichard was now Lord Protector of the Realm. Before his dominatingpersonality all overt opposition had crumbled, and with Rivers and Greyin prison, the Queen Dowager in sanctuary at Westminster, and Dorsetand Edward Woodville fled beyond sea the political horizon seemed clearand bright.
Meanwhile, the Duchess of Gloucester and her Household had come toLondon and were settled at Crosby Hall in Bishopgate Street. When theyneared the Capital, the Duke and a few of his chosen Knights had riddenout into the country to meet them; and Sir Aymer de Lacy had gone gaylyand expectantly, thinking much of a certain fair face with ruddytresses above it. Nor had he been disappointed; and it was herpleasant, half-familiar greeting that lingered in his mind long afterthe words and sweet smile of the Duchess were forgotten. He hadtarried beside the Countess' bridle until the Hall was reached; and asshe seemed quite willing for him to be there, he had been blind to theefforts of others to displace him. With Selim she had been openlydemonstrative, welcoming him with instant affection and leaning overmany times to stroke him softly on the neck or muzzle. Once, as shedid it, she shot a roguish smile at his master, and he had nodded andanswered that again he was wishing he were a horse--whereupon shedeliberately repeated the caress, glancing at him the while, sidelongand banteringly. But when he would have pursued the subject further,she crushed him with a look, and then for the remainder of the rideheld him close to commonplaces.
And if De Lacy thought to have again the delightful associations andinformal meetings that had obtained at Pontefract, he quickly realizedhis error. There, the Household was relatively small, and life had runalong in easy fashion. He had seen the Countess daily--had walked orridden with her as his duties permitted, and every evening had attendedin the presence chamber and gossiped with her for a while. Those fewdays of unhampered intimacy had let them know each other better thanmonths of London would have done. Lord Darby had been his only activerival, and even he was not there constantly. But in the Capital it wasotherwise. Scores of Knights, young and old, now sought her favor andwere ever in attendance. Indeed half the eligible men at Court wereher suitors, and the feeling among some of the more impetuous hadreached a point where it needed only the flimsiest of excuses for suchan exchange of cartels as would keep the lists at Smithfield busy for aweek. But through it all, the Countess moved with calm courtesy andserene unconcern. She had her favorites, naturally,--and she made nopretense otherwise,--but that reduced not a whit the fervor of theothers. Like the dogs in the dining hall, they took the scraps flungto them, and eagerly awaited more.
And the Lady Mary Percy gibed sweetly at them all, and at the Countess,too; but she gibed most at Sir Aymer de Lacy.
"You are a rare wooer, surely," said she one day, as the Lord of Warebore the Countess off to his barge for a row on the Thames. "You hadyour chance at Pontefract and . . . yonder she goes! One would neverfancy you were bred in France."
"Nor that you were really a sweet-tempered and charming demoiselle,"Sir Aymer answered good-naturedly.
She laughed merrily. "One might think I were jealous of the Countess?"
"Yes . . . or of the Earl of Ware."
"Or of all the others who hang about her," she added.
De Lacy looked down at her with an amused smile.
"Methinks Ware is enough," he said, with calm assertion.
She tossed her head in quick defiance. "Your penetration, Sir Aymer,is extraordinary--when it concerns others," she retorted.
"And when it concerns myself?"
She answered with a shrug.
He went over and leaned on the casement beside her.
"Just how stupid am I?" he asked.
She turned and measured him with slow eyes. "I am not sure it isstupidity," she remarked; "some might call it modesty."
He laughed. "And which does the Lady Mary Percy call it?"
"I can tell you better a year hence."
"Why so long a wait?"
"You will then have won or lost the Countess."
He shook his head dubiously.
"How will that decide the matter?" he asked.
She smiled. "Because only stupidity can lose."
He looked at her curiously and in silence, a quicker beat at his pulseand she read his thoughts.
"Oh, I am betraying no confidences," she said. "Your lady givesnone--save possibly to the Duchess. But I have been of the Householdwith Beatrix for two years and------"
"And . . . what?" he inflected.
"You can guess the rest--if you are not stupid," she said, turning away.
But he stayed her. "My barge is at the landing. Shall we follow . . .the others?" he suggested.
She hesitated--then, catching up a cloak and scarf that lay on a couch,she nodded acquiescence.
"Up stream or down?" he asked, as he handed her in and took placebeside her.
"Up," she said.
"Give way," he ordered, and the eight oars that had been raised high insalute dropped as one, and they shot out into the stream.
The Lady Mary settled herself among the cushions, one arm throwncarelessly around the awning post.
"What nonsense it is," she remarked presently.
De Lacy nodded. "Doubtless--but what?"
"This foolish dissimulation we all play at; . . . this assumedindifference which deceives no one. Here are we, barging together onthe Thames, when you would rather have the Countess . . . and I wouldrather have Ware."
"But would they rather have us?"
"I am quite sure she would, and" . . . holding up a hand and slowlyflashing the rings . . . "I think he would, too."
"If you happen to know which way they went," De Lacy laughed, "we mightfollow and suggest an exchange."
She sat up smartly. "Come," said she, "come; if you will venture itwith the Countess, I will with Ware."
He smiled. "I thought you gave me a year wherein to prove mystupidity."
"But would it be stupidity--might it not be rare brilliancy--a masterstroke?" She flashed the rings again. "Lord Darby would risk it werehe in like case."
"Nay, Darby is no fool."
"True enough--yet, neither is he afraid to brave the hazard; he is ahard fighter, in love as well as war."
"I find no fault with him for that," De Lacy answered, "so long as hefight fair."
She gave him a quick glance of interrogation.
"Would you trust him to fight fair?" she asked.
"I usually trust every man of noble birth until experience prove himundeserving."
"And you have had no experience with Darby?"
"No--not yet."
A sly smile crossed her lips and she was about to comment further, whenLord Ware's barge suddenly swung out from behind a large vessel and metthem.
"We are going to the Tower," the Countess called. "Will you not meetus there?"
The rowers backed water instantly, and the two boats drifted slowlypast each other.
"We will join you very shortly," Lady Mary answered--then smiled at DeLacy.
The Earl of Ware looked curiously at the Countess.
"Now why this sudden notion for the Tower?" he asked, when the bargeshad drawn apart. "But a moment since and you declined to stop thereand preferred to stay afloat."
"A moment since is far aback with a woman," the Countess laughed--"norhad I then seen the Lady Mary."
"Nor the Knight with her," said Ware sententiously.
She made no answer, save to look him in the face with calm composure.
"Who is this De Lacy," the Earl asked with, a supercilious shrug; "oneof the new nobility?"
A faint smile came into her eyes.
"New? May be, my lord--the term is but relative--yet _I_ would scarcecall him so: his ancestor came with Norman William and builtPontefract."
"So . . . one of old Ilbert's stock. Well, even a Ware may not cavilat that blood .
. . though it is passing strange I never heard of himuntil within the week."
"Strange for him or for you?" she asked.
"For me, of course--seeing that he has been so much at Court." Thetone was bantering, yet the sarcasm was deliberately veiled.
She turned upon him rather sharply.
"My lord," said she, "if you would criticise Sir Aymer de Lacy, do not,I pray, make me your confidant. He is my good friend."
"And you like him . . . well?" he questioned.
"Aye, that I do," she retorted instantly. "It is a pity his sort aregrowing scarce."
"His sort!" the Earl inflected. "In family, mean you, or in looks?"
"In manners, mainly."
The Earl shrugged his shoulders. "French training," he drawled."There never was one came from that Court but caught you all with hisbow and talk."
"Perchance, my lord, it has never occurred to you that, save in him shewed, a woman cares only for a man's manners and his speech."
"And what does she care for in him she weds?"
"Ask her whom you wed."
"And what, think you, will the bride of this De Lacy find in himbeneath his bow and speech?"
She turned and looked him in the eyes.
"An English gentleman--a trusty Knight," she answered.
He laughed--and now his air was light and merry.
"Believe me, my lady, I have no quarrel with your De Lacy," he said;"I, too, like him well. But I envy him his champion. Marry, how yourapped me with voice and eye. I wonder, would you do the same for me?"
"Yes, for you . . . and the Lady Mary."
"And why the Lady Mary?" he asked, after a pause.
"If you do not know, then there is no 'why,'" said she, facing aboutand looking up stream. "However, she is coming and, perchance, cananswer for herself. Shall I ask her . . . or will you?"
The touching of the boat just inside the St. Thomas Gate saved him ananswer. Giving the Countess his hand he aided her to alight, andalmost immediately De Lacy's barge ran in; and, he and Lady Marydisembarking, the four sauntered across the vast courtyard toward theroyal lodge.
As they turned into one of the shaded walks the Earl of Ware, whochanced to be a pace in advance, suddenly halted and drew aside, hisbonnet doffed, his attitude deeply respectful.
"The King!" exclaimed De Lacy, and they all fell back.
A slender, fair-haired boy was coming slowly down the path, one hand onthe neck of a huge mastiff, whose great head was almost on a level withhis shoulder. His dress was rich, but very simple--black velvet andsilk from head to foot, save the jeweled dagger at his hip and the blueribbon of the Garter about his knee. His bearing was wondrous easy,and there was a calm dignity about him most unusual in one so young.It may have been the innate consciousness of his exalted rank thatraised the thirteen-year-old boy to the man, and made his majesty sitso naturally upon him; or it may have been that the resemblance he boreto his imperious father carried with it also that father's haughtyspirit; but, whatever it was, there could be no mistaking that Edwardthe Fifth was a true heir of the Plantagenets, the proudest and bravestfamily that ever sat a throne.
He was unattended, save by the dog, and as he passed he smiled acourteous greeting.
"God save Your Majesty!" said the two Knights, bowing with bent knee,while the Countess and Lady Mary curtsied low.
He turned slightly and smiled at them again, then proceeded on his way,as unruffled as a man of thrice his age.
"A brave youth," said Sir Aymer de Lacy, gazing after him.
"Aye," the Earl answered, "brave in person and in promise--yet prone tomelancholy, it is said; a queer trait in a child."
"Inherited?" De Lacy asked.
Ware shrugged his shoulders. "Doubtless--almost anything could comethrough Jacquetta of Luxembourg."
Meanwhile the Countess and Lady Mary had gone on together, leavingtheir escorts to follow, and presently they turned toward the wharf.
"What say you," the Earl asked as they neared the gate, "what say youto--an exchange of companions?"
"I am willing," De Lacy answered instantly, thinking of Lady Mary'swords, "and so is------" then he stopped; that was not for him to tellWare, and doubtless she had been only jesting. "Suppose you suggest itto the Lady Mary," he ended.
The Earl gave him an amused smile. "Suppose you suggest it to theCountess."
Then both laughed.
Ware rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "We might suggest it to them bothtogether," he said.
"How, for instance?"
"Why . . . just intimate casually that . . . that . . . that . . . wewould . . . you know."
"No," said Aymer, "I do not."
Ware pondered a space. "We might put them in the wrong boats--byaccident, of course."
"And have them get out the instant we get in."
"Then it passes me," said the Earl. "I have supplied the idea; it isfor you to execute it."
De Lacy shook his head. "It is too deep for me; had I a week I mightcontrive a plan."
"I presume we will go back as we came," the other commented. "Marry,what a brave pair we are!"
As they reached the landing, their barges, that lay a little way downstream, swung around and came quickly up to the gate. The Earl'sentered first, and as he was about to proffer his hand to the Countessto aid her to embark, the Lady Mary stepped quickly into the boat, andgiving him a smile of bewitching invitation sank languidly among thecushions. For an instant he was taken aback; but, with a sharp glanceat De Lacy, he sprang aboard, and the oars caught the water.
The Countess watched them as they sped through the gate and away, thenturned to De Lacy with a roguish look and eyes half veiled.
"It seems, Sir Aymer, it is for you to take me back to the Hall," shesaid.